A NATURALIST'S CALENDAR FOR DORSETSHIRE. 135 



relative position of tne different districts resulting from it to the 

 sea, and the warm and moisture-laden breezes which come from it, 

 must make themselves felt with varying effect throughout the 

 county. The distribution of animals and plants and their migration 

 from one area to another is an aspect of natural history to which 

 increasing attention is being paid since the time when Mr. Alfred 

 Russell Wallace gave a stimulus to the study by his famous essay 

 on the " Distribution of Animals," which was given to the public 

 about the year 1874, and on "Island Life," which appeared some 

 years later. As a contribution to this subject in our own area the 

 joint flora of the counties of Dorset and Somerset, which has been 

 promised us by the President and the Rev. G. Murray, of 

 Shapwick Rectory, will doubtless contain much suggestive matter 

 for reflection on the migration and limitation of plants, and will be 

 hailed with interest by botanists. Meanwhile we may all of us 

 render help in the construction of the naturalist's calendar for the 

 county of the characters I have described, and it is for this reason I 

 have undertaken to lay the matter before you. 



